Thai Street Market Popcorn
What if caramel corn and your favorite takeout noodles had a crunchy, salty-sweet baby? Think caramel corn… but Southeast Asian. We promise it's not weird – it's wonderful!
Ingredients
- 9 cups popcorn, popped (some sort of buttered)
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/2 cup peanuts dry-roasted, chopped
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup light corn syrup
- 1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons grated ginger root
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha
- 1 teaspoon lime zest
- 1/2 teaspoon cilantro chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°F.
- Transfer the popcorn to a large bowl and make sure to remove any unpopped kernels. Add peanuts.
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together fish sauce, soy sauce, lime juice, sesame oil, sriracha, garlic powder, and grated ginger until well combined.
- In a small saucepan, add the brown sugar, butter, and corn syrup over medium heat, stirring constantly, until butter melts.
- Add soy sauce-fish sauce mixture, raise temperature to medium-high, stirring constantly, until mixture starts to bubble and thickens.
- Once thick, turn off the heat, remove from heat and add in baking soda, lime zest and cilantro. Quickly mix well, as the mixture will bubble up and harden if you don’t.
- Pour this over the popcorn and peanuts and mix well.
- Spread the popcorn on two large baking sheets, making sure to spread the popcorn evenly across, breaking apart large clumps. Popcorn will seem a bit wet, but don’t worry.
- Place it in the oven for 45 minutes, removing every 15 minutes to move the kernels around on each sheet, then place back in oven.
- Allow the popcorn to cool and place in an airtight container.